Whanganui River Road and Tongariro

Driving out of Wellington was kind of stressful, because after all these weeks in the wilderness we are not used to traffic anymore, not to speak about the fact, that the Kiwis are still driving on the wrong side. Where are all the cars/people coming from anyway? Not sure, but we quickly had enough and decided to drive down to Taupo via the Whanganui River Road and that was a fantastic decision. You end up alone in a beautiful valley and you fallow the river to a mill, to a maori settlement and to a village called Jerusalem. I also discovered the Tongagrio National Park in a different way this time. Thanks to Monti we were able to stay on a DOC campsite for two nights. The crystal clear sky was perfect to observe the stars, but it was bitterly cold to sleep on latitude of 1000 meters. We did half of the Tongariro crossing again and spent a day in Iwikau Village fallowing the footsteps of the Lord of the Ring crew. The crew stay at the Chateau Hotel Tongariro for a few weeks to shoot the scenes of Mordor in the mountains. It is a spectacular scenery and it was a pity the Mount Ruapehu was hidden in clouds all day long.